Forever
by the yellow canary
Summary: "Doctor? Doctor! Please, I need you. Please, listen to this! It's Romana! I need you!"


_"Doctor? Doctor! Please, I need you. Please, listen to this! It's Romana! I need you!" _

_Takes place after Midnight but before Turn Left_

**One**.

Rose, Martha, Jack. The latest in a long line of people which had moved on from him, whether deliberately or not.

The Master was dead, gone for good yet again but that didn't stop him from hoping with both of his hearts that he was still alive. Because he was evil and insane but it would be worth it to have to someone like him alive. A Time Lord.

If he could wish for one thing - just one thing - it would be to have someone with him. Someone who would never leave him and leave yet another hole in his hearts.

But he made sure that would never happen when he used the Moment to kill the Time Lords and the Daleks when he put Gallifrey in a Time Lock. He had himself to blame for his loneliness, no one else. Just him.

The Time Rotor moved up and down as the Doctor stood beside the console, staring up at the Rotor with unseeing eyes, lost in his thoughts. He was starting to regret leaving Donna on Earth with her family, he should've stayed like Donna had suggested. At least then he wouldn't be having these dangerous thoughts. He blinked once as the TARDIS jolted, causing him to fall forward and grip the console in order to hold himself up. His eyebrows furrowed and he flicked a switch in front of him, thinking that it would stop the slight rocking of the TARDIS.

However, it had the opposite effect and soon enough the TARDIS had thrown him onto the floor and holding him to it as it moved through the Time Vortex to an unknown destination as the Doctor, unsuccessfully, tried to get up from the floor.

The TARDIS landed a moment later, all the lights dimming as soon as the blue box arrived where it wanted to go. The Doctor remained on the floor, one hand on his chest as he contemplated where the TARDIS had brought him. The last time the TARDIS had gone through that much turbulance was when they had gone through to another universe. But...

As soon as the thought ran through his mind he was up and onto his feet, pressing a button on the console and running to the monitor. His hands gripped onto each side of the screen and his fingers crossed, waiting for the Gallifreyan circles on the screen to show where the TARDIS had brought him. Almost instantly, his hands fell slack and his mouth slightly opened. He stepped back and raised an eyebrow as he overlooked the boring information and saw that he was, in fact, in another universe.

One he hadn't been in for a while. In fact, he'd been here twice. Once when he had fell through a Charged Vacuum Emboitment and again when the Time Lords had sent him to pick up Romana.

Somehow, the TARDIS had made its way into E-Space.

The Doctor stepped back until his back was resting against one of the coral supports. His hands steepled in front of him before he wiped his face with his hand, unable to take his eyes from the monitor which was the only thing which proved that he was in fact in E-Space.

"It's not possible." He whispered to himself. The Logopolitans had been the ones to create CVE's in order to delay the universe's collapse. But Logopolis had been destroyed and almost took the universe with it until he stopped it with the help of the Master. Thus, closing the unrequired CVE's.

So, how did he get here?

Travelling between one universe and another was impossible without the Time Lords to monitor it and ensure that the walls between one universe and another remained perfectly entact. If one was fractured, no Time Lord was allowed to travel to another universe until it was fixed. The walls between the universe, well N-Space, and the universe Rose was trapped in had been broken once before. But he had fixed that, evident by the fact that Rose had gone.

His thoughts were interrupted once more by a small noise. It was hardly noticeable but the TARDIS was unusually silent, meaning that the Doctor could hear any and every noise no matter how small it was.  
He stepped forward again and looked down at the console. Besides the monitor was a small red light, flashing consistently. His eyes narrowed and his hand hovered over the light before moving to a switch beside it. He could distantly remember from Academy lessons that this would stop the light flashing.

As soon as he flicked the small switch, the lights in the TARDIS became much brighter, almost blinding him and causing him to shield his eyes with his hand as a loud voice echoed around the large room. As the message played, the Doctor felt his hearts stop.

_"Doctor? Doctor! Please, I need you. Please, listen to this! It's Romana! I need you!" _

_"Doctor? Doctor! Please, I need you. Please, listen to this! It's Romana! I need you!" _

Over and over the message played until the Doctor, with shaking hands, flicked the switch once again. His face was pale and his eyes wider than usual. His breathing was much quicker and he wasn't sure whether or not his legs were capable of holding him up any more. The fact that Romana - wonderfully, brilliant, perfect _Time Lady_ Romana - was alive practically caused his legs to collapse from underneath him because _he wasn't alone!_

For a second it was as if time had stopped.

And then... He jumped, leaning across the console to push a button, leaning back and turning a lever before extracting the location the message had come from. The TARDIS processed it slowly and the Doctor growled in annoyance, slamming his fist down on the console and staring at the monitor before him intently, a wide grin stretching over his face as he entered the negative co ordinates. The TARDIS dematerialised and the Doctor felt a jolt as he carried on piloting the TARDIS, determined on one thing and one thing only.

Getting to Romana.

|x|x|

_Madame President..._

_Gallifrey..._

_Time War..._

_You're as good as dead, Romanadvoratrelundar... _

_Time Lock..._

_The Moment..._

_The Doctor..._

_Get to the Doctor..._

_Doctor..._

_Doctor..._

"Doctor!"

Green eyes opened, hands dug into the ground underneath her and her head turned wildly to look for him. The man who haunted her dreams.

It wasn't the first time Romana had nightmares; in her first incarnation she had been terrified at first as she came face to face with terrible creatures who had, once upon a time, been nothing more than information on a page in a book. The Doctor had gone head to head with the creatures with that irritating grin plastered on his face but Romana was in the background, keeping a brave expression on her face whilst she internally cowered.

She had been such a damsel in distress - to quote the humans - back then. All haughty and helpless when it came to searching for the key. But then she regenerated and became much closer to the Doctor. Sure, she was still cold and haughty at times but that was due to the Time Lord within her. She was born like that. And the Doctor liked that regeneration more, she could tell. Whilst she wasn't as beautiful or as bossy, she was more like the Doctor. So much like him that when the message from the Time Lords came, _she_ was the one who suggested the running, not the Doctor.

_"Romana, you'll be a renegade."_

_"I don't care Doctor. At least I'll get to stay... With you." She snuggled closer to him, inhaling the unique scent from his scarf that was purely the Doctor. _

_"You won't be the first companion who wants to stay forever and you certainly won't be the last." Romana rolled her eyes and looked up, unnerved at the sudden absence of the Doctor's usually constant grin. _

_"Doctor... I am a Time Lady with eleven more regenerations. I will probably be around much longer than you." He grinned back at her and held her waist between his strong hand, just as the TARDIS moved through a CVE on their way to Gallifrey. _

Romana could remember her adventures with the Doctor very clearly. They were the things she would look back on to cheer herself up when being President of Gallifrey became too much. She would remember how the Doctor did so many impossible things and she could do them as well, without him. She would be her own Romana.

If she could get away from here.

In the last days of the Time War Romana had been a wanted criminal, for both the Daleks and the Time Lords. The Daleks knew of her past alliance with the Doctor and knew that another death of one of his closest companions would halt his killing from the front line. The Time Lords knew that their powerful leader Rassilon wanted his predecessor dead so he would remain President and all wishes of the Great Rassilon must be fulfilled.

Oh, she's sarcastic. Is it possible for one personality trait to stick through all regenerations?

Anyway, Romana had managed to reassemble a damaged battle TARDIS which had been left to die and replaced. Whilst it wasn't in brilliant condition, and it was risky to travel in a self constructed TARDIS before the war, never mind when the Time Vortex was highly volatile and Gallifrey could collapse at any moment, Romana had gotten off the planet and escaped the Daleks wrath.

However, she hadn't properly restored the dimensional stabilisers or the navigational systems. So, her trip had been even more rocky than one piloted by the Doctor and she had somehow ripped through the Vortex into E-Space due to the navigation being programmed to intake negative co ordinates rather than the positive ones which would take the TARDIS to somewhere in N-Space, just in case a Dalek came across the damaged TARDIS.

So, she was stuck in E-Space without any resources to repair her TARDIS and no way of getting back into her universe. There was only one solution she could think of and as much as it pained the independant Time Lord within her it, she called the only person who could help her.

Ten years later and she was still waiting for the Doctor.

She knew there was a very high possibility that the message may not have reached him; he was in N-Space and travelling between universes wasn't recommended without the Time Lords to control the volatility of the walls separating universes.

That was something she was unsure of. She had been in E-Space without any contact with anyone else and had plenty of time to think. And it was thinking that led to realising that there was no psychic link. No matter where a Time Lord was, they were connected to Gallifrey and the rest of their species. Even when she was in E-Space a long time ago she could feel the rest of her people. So, the absence of the psychic link could mean only one thing; the Doctor had succeeded and the Time War was over. With her trapped in E-Space with no method of leaving.

Enter the Doctor.

Romana had hoped that he would be able to enter E-Space and take her to their universe. However, it seemed that he hadn't been able to travel through to this universe. Or the wall had blocked the message from getting to the TARDIS. Either hypothesis was possible and Romana knew there was a low percentage of the Doctor arriving to rescue her.

She had no way of returning to N-Space, a TARDIS that didn't work and no Doctor to help her.

Being her own Romana didn't look very appealing at the moment.

|x|x|

"It's been a long time since we were both here."

Romana looked up but didn't move from where she was sat on the ground, her knees pulled up to her chest. They both waited in silence, neither of them wanting to make the first move in belief that the other will disappear. It was just too good for the other to be alive. It was impossible.

The Doctor stepped forward at the same time Romana stood up and turned to face him. Both of them were changed and not just in appearance.

The Doctor, now the killer of his own kind. He had been a handsome and curly haired man, a soft smile always present for those who needed it and Romana had often found him giving it to her in the early days of the war when they could both find the time to be with each other. He was still as handsome with gravity defying hair and a suit which only exaggerated his almost too thin body. Dark brown eyes were glistening with unshed tears as they remained on Romana as though she were the most brilliant and awe inspiring thing in the universe. Those brown eyes displayed to her just how much he had changed. Being alone for so long with so much guilt and death hanging over him had made him much older than his age and Romana herself felt guilt for not being there for him.

Romana was different also. Her short dark hair and dark eyes had been replaced by fair hair and green eyes. After trying different features she had settled on turning her sharp features into lightly tanned soft ones which made her look young but not too young that people wouldn't take her seriously like they used to. When she first came into her Presidency the Council would attempt to intimidate her into making the decisions they wanted, believing her to be naive and innocent. And if she hadn't travelled with the Doctor then they would've got away with it. But Romana was a much stronger person now who only toughened with the War and her new regeneration. Her own eyes showed the guilt and responsibility such a young person had, making her look older and so much like the Doctor.

"Doctor." Romana nodded, realising that she was acting as though they were still fighting in the War.

"Romana." He nodded back, a blank expression on his face but his eyes were still suspiciously shiny.

_"Madame President." _

_"Lord Doctor."_

_The warmth that had once radiated from her had disappeared but he still gave her that soft look, that smile that once caused her hearts to race but now caused irritation to rush through her. _

_"You requested to meet me." Her voice held no warmth as she stared at the man who had once been her dearest friend, the man who meant the universe to her. _

_"Yes." He breathed, stepping closer to her and moving to take her hands before stopping himself. "I'll be leaving tomorrow. Arcadia needs Time Lords." He said and Romana nodded. _

_"I see." She lookes at him, her cool eyes taking in every last detail with frightening intensity. "May I enquire as to why you wished to see me before you left?" _

_He stared at her for a few seconds before lightly brushing his fingers over her hand, the physical contact helping him lightly brush against her mind in an intimate and close way that had once been so welcomed and familiar to Romana. Now, she let him have his moment whilst considering the best way to kill as many Daleks on Arcadia as possible. _

_"I just wanted to see you, my dear." He said eventually, his voice quiet as he tried to gain the effort to leave. "One last time." He said with a small laugh and Romana wanted to argue. He was the Doctor, he would survive. _Why do you think the Council wanted to summon you back despite their President's wishes not to? _She would say. But she was no longer that soft fool who she had been before. She was the perfect incarnation for the War. "It will give me something to fight for." He said, pulling back his hand and straightening up. "You, the K9's, Leela..." He listed, still staring at her with concentration as though to imprint her into his mind. Romana felt her lips twitch slightly and saw the Doctor grin in return. Stupid fool would be the death of her, she knew, but couldn't find it in her to care. _

_"Good luck, Lord Doctor." She nodded and the Doctor's smile fell but he nodded back._

_"Madame President." Both turned and left in opposite directions, none of them looking back. _

Over a century later the two were stood opposite each other once again. Neither knew which one moved first but neither really cared about anything other than the other's arms which were now tightly wrapped around them.


End file.
